[ RadSafe ] Nuclear Terrorism: Weapons for Sale or Theft?

[Flood, John]

I heartily agree with Andy's viewpoint on this.  And there's another factor
- the terrorism business is competitive like anything else.  bin Laden is a
hero in that segment of society, and use of a nuclear weapon probably looks
very appealing to the terrorist who fancies himself the NEXT bin Laden.

Bob Flood
Nevada Test Site


-----Original Message-----
From: A Karam [mailto:paksbi at rit.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:32 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear Terrorism: Weapons for Sale or Theft?

All of these arguments against the risk of radiological or nuclear terrorism
are compelling.  Unfortunately, the final word is that of the terrorists.
Osama bin Laden made it clear in a public statement in the mid-90s that he
considers it an obligation to procure and use nuclear weapons against the US
and/or its allies.  RDD designs and (apparently) guidelines for their use
were found in Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban.  
 
Our government overstated the case for Iraqi WMD, but bin Laden's statement
was public and has not yet been withdrawn (to the best of my knowledge).  So
it seems prudent to assume that, regardless of how likely we consider such
an attack to be, there are those who are intent on carrying one out and who
will do so if the opportunity presents itself.
 
Andy
 
P. Andrew Karam, Ph.D., CHP
Research Assistant Professor
Rochester Institute of Technology
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